Hair removal is a fantastic way to feel great. Sugaring helps exfoliate our skin, leaving it soft, smooth and beautiful. We get our beauty standards from a lot of different sources; magazines, films, the people around us. Today, let’s look into the history of hair removal, and see how we got to the beauty standards we have today.

History Undressed has a fantastic article on hair removal, explaining its origins. They note that the best hair removal techniques, like sugaring, have been used for thousands of years, and are basically unchanged since those times; this is because the technique is so effective, and that hair-free skin has been a beauty standard since cavemen times. The first group thought to be interested in hair removal, surprisingly enough, is men; early hunter-gatherers were worried that their rivals would be able to get an advantage in fights by pulling on their facial hair, so warriors on the up-and-up would scrape off their beards and hair with sharp rocks. Fortunately, that technique has not survived the test of time, and we’ve found better methods.

The trend of cavemen removing their hair seems to have found its way to the entire upper class, and to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, a hair-free body was considered a sign of refined taste and status. Women in these cultures would commonly have almost all their hair removed, leaving only the eyebrows. Sugaring was often used in these cultures, as it was easy to get the ingredients, and extremely effective at removing hair. Body hair and facial hair were a sign of lower status in these cultures, as it meant you were uncivilized and unaware of how to take care of your hygiene.

As time progressed, body hair removal stayed extremely common. The Romans used it as an identifier of class too, so it spread throughout the Empire, and most of Europe. During the Middle Ages, when times were tough, the Europeans stopped using body hair removal as much; during Elizabethan times, it came back, but only in the form of eyebrow and forehead hair removal. As time went on, full body hair removal became common in Europe once again. Looking back through fine art, we can see that women throughout the ages are almost all clean-shaven; this beauty standard has persisted through the best and worst of times, and in the Middle East and Egypt, body hair removal was common even in the Middle Ages.

In the 1880s, Gilette created the first modern razor, a far cry from the sharp stones cavemen used to slice off their hair.

Today, sugaring remains a common and effective way of removing body hair; though lasers and other advanced technology have come into play, it’s hard to beat the ancient wisdom of the Egyptians. The fact that hair removal has remained a sign of taste, class and good looks throughout eras and cultures is a testament to its importance as a beauty standard. To have our skin looking as beautiful as possible, it’s helpful to visit a professional body sugaring service who can sugar us with utmost care and professionalism.